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LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) released its latest billboard campaign
in Los Angeles this week to draw attention to rising STD rates over a
time period that corresponds with the growing popularity of dating or
“hookup” mobile phone apps. In addition to a lengthy September Vanity
Fairarticle
entitled “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’” that explored
the role mobile dating apps are increasingly playing in encouraging
casual sex among young adults, the Rhode Island Department of Health reported
in May that cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV sharply rose between
2013 and 2014 and said that high-risk behaviors such as “using social
media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters, having
sex without a condom, having multiple sex partners, and having sex while
under the influence of drugs or alcohol” have become more common in
recent years.

“Mobile dating apps are rapidly altering the sexual landscape by making
casual sex as easily available as ordering a pizza,” said AHF President Michael
Weinstein. “In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are
becoming a digital bathhouse for Millennials wherein the next sexual
encounter can literally just be a few feet away—as well as the next STD.
While these sexual encounters are often intentionally brief or even
anonymous, sexually transmitted diseases can have lasting effects on an
individual’s personal health and can certainly create epidemics in
communities at large. We want to send a strong message that sexually
active adults—especially young people—should think twice about who
they’re hooking up with.”

AHF’s billboard campaign incorporates two of the most popular mobile
dating apps, Tinder and Grindr, and attempts to remind users of the
inherent STD risks of both heterosexual and homosexual casual sexual
encounters. Tinder, which was released in September 2012 on college
campuses, is the #1 Lifestyle app in both the iOS and Google Play app
stores. The company stated
in May 2015 that “the single largest age group on Tinder, making up more
than half of our entire user base, is 18-24.” According to research firm GlobalWebIndex,
the app is being used largely in urban locations (76%) like Los Angeles.
Launched in 2009, Grindr is the most popular gay male location-based
mobile app with over 10 million user downloads and over 2
million daily active users in 192 countries.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over
470,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn
more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare
and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.